We mentioned The Wire on the Spoiler Special, but a listener named Allison suggested an earlier TV series loosely based on David Simon’s first book, Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets. “It’s
not hard to imagine this exact crime,” Allison writes, “as a basis for
one of the episodes.” She continues: “The Baltimore and criminal
procedure elements are obviously similar, but what strikes me even more
is how the same story looked at from different angles yields different
perceptions. Within the confines of a single episode, you decide that
Lt. Frank Pembleton is a jerk, a saint, inflexible, malleable, clever,
dogmatic. Nobody is spared this treatment—everyone is under scrutiny.
And while there are a few tired stereotypes, the truth is always
complicated and messy. Sound familiar?”